Stuart Yaniger wrote:It's possible to do something even stupider than touching your eye. Don't ask, just trust me on that one.

A friend of mine took his wife on a second honeymoon to Mexico. He's something of a chilehead so he sat down in the bar one afternoon drinking and eating a bowl of jalapenos. His wife was napping up in their room. After a few beverages he was feeling a little amorous and went up to the room. He began foreplay...apparently they heard her screams at the front desk.

Jenise wrote:Five minutes ago I chopped two just-roasted jalapenos for a corn chowder, and 30 seconds ago I rubbed my left eye.

SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not like I'd want to one-up you or anything, but I did this with <i>habaneros</i> once.

Talk about PAIN!? I literally put my head in the sink and ran water straight on my eyeball. For a while there, I thought 911 was going to have to be called, but I couldn't see well enough to find the phone. (As it turned out, the water worked, eventually, and there didn't seem to be any damage. But I've had a hell of a lot of respect for habaneros ever since.)

It also turned out that the concoction I was making - intended to be a home version of the original Melinda's - was inedible. I don't mean uncomfortably hot. I mean simply <i>impossible to eat</i> at any level of dilution. We threw it out, amid talk of calling the HazMat people to come and get it.

Did you ever see a fly spinning around in a circle? That was me many years when I was a roller skater and used some Sloan's Liniment on a pulled inner thigh muscle.

Unintended parts got contaminated with Sloan's (great for horses bc it has turpentine in it) and after suffering for a while, I decided to draw a bath to wash off. When said parts touched the water, the pain was ramped up another order of magnitude and I jumped out of the water.

I love chilies (and looking forward to the IOTM mentioned in another thread!!)

Russ and I started growing peppers in 2004 with just a couple of jalapeno plants. With the bountiful crop too much to eat fresh, all we could do with the excess was can them. So we made pickled jalapenos, jalapeno relish, green tomato relish with jalapenos, etc....

Then in 2005, we again planted jalapenos, and again canned more jalapenos, in all sorts of various forms.

This year, Russ and I are growing serranos, jalapenos, cayenne, and habaneros. It's his job to cut/dice them all - and I agree 100% with the others - gloves are mandatory. And if he ever so touches a light switch or spoon handle while contaminated - he better wipe up immediately. No 'second hand capsaicin' for me!!

We fixed a batch of habanero sauce last week that wasn't as toxic as I expected. The 'orange juice' started with 6 peppers, but was tempered with 3 large onions, and a couple of cups shredded carrot. Just the right amount of filler to keep the pepper flavor tasty, without the pain.